Airbnb Reveals NZ’s Most Hospitable Towns And New Upgrades

With over seven million Airbnb listings across the globe, each home tells a unique story and provides a different experience. To enhance this experience, Airbnb has upgraded itself by introducing Guest Favourites, revamped ratings and reviews and a new Listings tab with tools to help hosts showcase their homes better.

The new Guest Favourites feature is a collection of the two million most loved homes on Airbnb, while the Listings tab now has tools to help hosts manage their listings and an AI-powered photo tour.

Guest Favourites have excellent reviews and are rated above 4.9 stars on average, with high marks for ease of check-in, cleanliness, listing accuracy, communication, location and value.

Nearly two-thirds of Guest Favourites come from Superhosts, recognised for their track record of outstanding hospitality.

The redesigned rating page also includes three new features that make reviews easier to read and more helpful in sorting, distribution and other details.

Guests can now sort reviews by recency or rating, and a new chart shows the distribution of reviews from one to five stars, so guests can easily view the number of positive and negative reviews.

“People often describe checking into an Airbnb as a ‘moment of truth’ – when you find out if the home you booked meets your expectations,” said Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky.

Managing a listing is one of the most essential parts of hosting, but many listings still need the details guests care about because adding them has been too difficult.

To make this easier, the all-new Listings tab includes an editor interface and an AI-powered photo tour with which hosts can instantly create a photo tour, which organises photos by room to help guests understand the layout of their home. They can edit their photo tour anytime and add amenities to each room.

Airbnb’s new Smart lock integration allows hosts to connect compatible smart locks to their Airbnb account and automatically generate a unique code for every reservation. Guests can view their entry codes in the Airbnb app before arriving.

In addition to the new Listings tab, other upgrades for hosts feature pricing visibility, a new earnings dashboard, and options for co-host payouts and messaging.

Finding a great place to stay is about knowing the places travellers love the most, and with a valuable bank of information, Airbnb has also revealed the top 10 New Zealand cities or towns with the highest percentage of 5-star rated Airbnb.